2020. vol. 17. No. 4

The present article is devoted to the famous phenomenon in the psychology of creativity, incubation during creative problem solving. Incubation is a break in problem solving, which facilitates efficiency despite the absence of a conscious search. This article introduces a review of the theoretical frameworks and experimental studies of incubation and its cognitive mechanisms. The author describes the main hypotheses about the cognitive mechanisms of the incubation period (such as the forgetting fixation hypothesis, the unconscious work hypothesis, the external cues hypothesis, the attention withdrawal hypothesis), and their empirical evidence. Our theoretical review also contains the main conclusions from meta-analyses, which demonstrate evidence for the incubation effect, and the analysis of the factors affecting the incubation effect size, specifically the type of the main task and the type of the incubation task, the length of the preparatory stage and the length of the incubation phase. Special attention is given to the description of modern neurocognitive studies of creative thinking. These studies aim to investigate the brain systems activated during the incubation period and make it possible to analyze this stage of a creative process in a more detailed way. Incubation is found to be associated with the increased default mode network activity, salience network activity, and activity in motor areas and with the decreased executive attention system activity. In conclusion, the author outlines the conflicting and understudied areas in the theoretical representations of the incubation process that provide prospective directions for future research.

In cognitive psychology, the ideas of body and motor influence on mental processes are quite relevant. The set of these ideas forms a new direction in research – embodied cognition research program. However, despite the wide prevalence, only a small number of studies apply principles of this approach to study the phenomenon of insight. At present, there are several theories that try to explain mechanisms of insight problem solving in different ways: nonspecific approach, which denies differences in processes of solving insight and non-insight problems, and specific approach, which implies special mechanisms for insight problem solving. Our study, based on the ideas of embodied cognition research program and specific approach to understanding insight, examines insight problem solving depending on motor activity, which contains different types of principles of solving insight symmetry task: the principle of symmetry and the principle of chunk decomposition. Three experimental groups of motor activity were formed, which embody both principles of problem solving in different ways. Differences were found in the time needed for solving problems depending on associated type of motor activity. We found the facilitative effect of motor activity, which embodies both basic principles of insight problem solving. It is assumed that the presence of the problem solving principles in motor activity implicitly triggers the mechanisms of representation change. Future research plans are outlined to test the principles of solving insight task based on non-instrumental motor activity. The results are consistent with Ponomarev’s ideas on the role of a by-product in thought processes.

There are two common approaches to researching insight: the study of the emotional response to a solution (Aha! experience) and the study of the restructuring of representations. The relationship between them can be found by comparing functions they perform relative to each other. For the experimental investigation of insight, problems that are typically being used can be solved within a little amount of time and are highly similar in their structure. We believe that such laboratory designs of the tasks often lead to researchers missing out on the moments of impasse and initial restructuring of the search space. In the current study, using the method of multimodal corpora constructed from individual solutions, we gained partial confirmation of the key statements of the model of emotional regulation of the representational change. According to the model, an insight solution process is accompanied by emotions regulating the process of representational change. A feeling of impasse is a response to the lack of progress towards the solution. An Aha! experience appears in response to solvers performing actions that bring them a huge step closer to the solution of a problem. We believe that these emotional responses are experienced before the solution reaches consciousness and they motivate the solver to adapt their search space accordingly. The model we propose is a development of the ideas of Ya.A. Ponomarev on the role of emotions in regulating of insight problem solving andmodel of M. Ollinger and colleagues describing the phases of insight problem solving.

The incubation period is regarded as an important stage in creative problem solving. The incubation effect manifests itself in the enhanced problem-solving performance after taking a break. Forgetting fixation hypothesis states that incubation provides a problem solver with an opportunity to eliminate inappropriate ideas (mental sets) and therefore to come up with a correct solution. We explored in two studies whether forgetting is an actual mechanism of the incubation period (i.e. whether the traces of inappropriate fixations in memory become weaker as a consequence of incubation). In Study 1 we employed the Alternative Uses Task (AUT) and fixed part of the participants on several most common ways of using an object. We checked then whether incubation helped to forget our fixations. We found the incubation effect (i.e. a greater fluency at the second attempt) only when participants were previously fixated. However, we also found that the incubation didn’t influence the number of fixations. Thus, we failed to find the evidence for forgetting fixation during the incubation period. In Study 2 we used anagrams with two possible solutions and fixed the participant on one of them. Then we used the Lexical Decision Task (LDT) to examine whether these fixations would become weaker as a result of the incubation period. No differences were found between the incubation and no-incubation groups in their response latencies for fixation words. Our results indicate that while the assumption that the function of an incubation period is in overcoming inappropriate mental sets seems to be true, the forgetting fixation theory provides an inaccurate account of underlying mechanisms.

The relevance of the study lies in expanding scientific understanding of the emergence of changes and their patterns in teacher’s work motivation, as well as in solving practical problems of supporting pedagogical activity by updating the resources of teachers’ motivation. The purpose of the article is the description of the emergence of changes and their temporal patterns in teacher’s work motivation based on the empirical study on the dynamics of the structure of motivation in teachers with different work experience. The methodological basis of the study is represented by the systemogenetic and metasystem approaches. The main research methods of the study are the analysis of psychological structures and the modeling method. As a result of their application, by comparing the systemogenetic patterns with changes in the structural-level organization of motivation in teachers, the emergence and the principles of transformation of teachers’ work motivation in the time continuum were determined. The article reveals the predictors of the formation and patterns of the dynamics of subsystem and component levels in the structure of teacher’s work motivation. It is shown that at the first stages of the dynamics, changes in key levels of the structure are carried out according to the principles of systemogenesis: hierarchy, target determination, unevenness, differentiation, etc. After the system overcomes the crisis, changes are carried out according to the principles of metasystemogenesis: heterarchy, heterochronism, situational determination, cycles and others. The identification of temporal patterns of changes in the structure of motivation in teachers shows the non-linear nature of the transformation and the continuity of the development of motivation in the system of professional pedagogical activity. The data obtained can be used by specialists to design systems for updating the motivation and supporting the professional activities of teachers.

The paper presents the results of the research on the parameters of psychological system of activity in university youth of Saint Petersburg in the context of innovativeness. Studying modern youth’s readiness for innovative activity is of considerable interest from the perspective of both their personal and professional development in higher education settings and the involvement of university youth in innovative activity in the leading higher education institutions of the country. The Self-Organization of Activity Questionnaire (Mandrikova, 2010), Differential Test of Reflection (Leontiev, Osin, 2014), EmIn Questionnaire (Lucin, 2009), Change Response Styles Questionnaire (Bazarov, Sycheva, 2012) were used as the research tools in the study. At the first stage the sample consisted of 244 second-year students of Saint Petersburg State University. The article discusses the results of correlation, factor and regression analyses. It was shown that important parameters for developing innovative qualities of modern university youth are the presence of goals, orientation to the present, the ability to systemic reflection and interpersonal emotional intelligence. Fixation on the performance of a task and propensity to planning can have a restraining effect on implementing young people’s personal readiness for innovative activity. The implementing style of response to changes is determined by both interpersonal and intrapersonal emotional intelligence as well as characterized by the existence of goals, the persistence in achieving them and orientation to the present. For the first time the study has shown a high significance of emotional intelligence as a parameter of the modern youth’s psychological system of activity in the context of developing their innovativeness.

This article is devoted to the psychosemantic analysis of the feature film Rashomon by the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, based on the stories In a Thicket and Rashomon Gate by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. Scientific ideas in various forms often emerge at the level of the collective and individual unconscious. So, the creator of the theory of relativity, Albert Einstein, noted that the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky The Brothers Karamazov became for him a creative analogue of the theory of relativity. According to the concept of “polyphonism,” introduced by M.M. Bakhtin, the voices of Dostoevsky’s characters act as independent reference systems that bear their truth to life. Similarly, in A. Einstein’s theory, the parameters of the observed object depend on the position of the observer, and there is no “correct” description “outside” of this position. N. Bohr believed that both the studied phenomenon and its observer cannot be attributed to independent physical reality. In the Everett (multi-world) interpretation of quantum mechanics, the concept of a correlated state (“relative state”) that occurs when observing a quantum system is introduced. H. Everett believed that the result of its observation is not a “mystical” reduction of all possibilities to the only one, but a splitting of reality into many worlds, where one of these possibilities is realized. Now in the everettics it is believed that the result of the observation is an alterverse - a certain set of states where a single reality is observed from various “points of view.” Note that Socrates also showed the conventionality or relativity of any empirical knowledge of the world. Forcing the interlocutors to apply “common” concepts to various objects, he caused them to come to understanding that these objects become illusory, that is, they do not correspond to these “single” concepts. Our interest in the problem of how the position of observers influences the reality they design is reflected in a series of publications on this topic. And in this context, we were attracted to the film Rashomon, where the ideas of relativism are contrastingly presented in the artistic form.

This paper provides a comprehensive view on a concept of the unknown self (UKS). The manuscript covers the origin of UKS, conditions of its existence, its associations with the known self (considering paradoxicality of these associations), subjectivity of its pursuit and disclosure, its impact on reaching self-identity and self-transformation. An original starting definition of UKS is introduced; UKS is defined as one’s awareness of not knowing themselves. UKS is presumably overcome via reflection, relationships with others and productive actions. The study employed personological methods integrating thereby the theoretical hermeneutic (cultural) model of UKS, empirical backgrounds to studying UKS, a new “Unknown Self Scale”. The authors justify a paradox of the relationships between UKS and the Known-Self. The paradox is treated as a particular balance of binary oppositions, wherein each opposition is necessary for its counterpart to exist, both are equivalent to each other, have properties determined by their mutual associations, be mutually consistent in a constructive manner. Several aspects of UKS, given previously insufficient attention paid, were highlighted in the paper including UKS and interpersonal relationships, hypostases of UKS, its content, UKS under one’s opportunities and potentials, age changes in UKS, UKS and significant others, UKS within extended interpersonal space, UKS in the structure of self-concept, UKS as an attribute of self-identity and self-disidentification, motivation to search for and uncovering UKS, cultural and individual sources of “knowing about not knowing themselves”.

The article presents the results of a study of various components of the narrative competence of 4 and 6-year-old children in the context of developing theory of mind – a system for representing knowledge about mental phenomena of other people. We consider a narrative not only as an important communication tool and integrative language ability, but also as a method for analyzing the understanding of mental states and events. The analysis of the structural and content characteristics of children's narratives in relation to theory of mind allows us to study the pragmatic aspects of communication, focus on a partner and the ability to take into account their point of view. The study involved 60 children who told stories to another child. The children's narratives were created according to the instructions so that the central part was missing. The narratives were evaluated according to the structure, informativity, quantity and specificity of descriptions of mental states. We evaluated theory of mind using a battery of tasks: understanding false beliefs, intentions, emotions, etc. The results showed a qualitative leap in the development of a theory of mind and narrative abilities from 4 to 6 years, as well as a change in the nature of the relationships between them in two age groups. Differences were found in all the studied characteristics of narratives in children with different levels of theory of mind: children who understand mental states better made more detailed, consistent descriptions, including an indication of causality and various mental states of the characters. The age specificity in the description of mental states is also shown. The data show that theory of mind can be viewed as one of the cognitive resources for constructing narrative.

The present study investigated the occurrence of recurring errors in the learning process. Our goal was to determine the reasons for recurring errors. In considering these reasons we were trying to find the characteristic features of incorrect responses at the beginning of a learning process in order to predict the occurrence of recurring errors in the learning process. Response times and confidence measures were used as the predictors of error repetition. The results of two experiments have shown that response times and confidence levels for the recurring and singular errors at the beginning of learning are different. Response times were shorter for recurring errors than for singular errors at the beginning of a learning process. This information can be used to predict the repetition of such errors further along during learning. In addition, in both experiments, the correct responses were slower for stimuli that would cause recurring errors in the future. This allowed us to predict the repetition of such errors. Participants’ confidence estimates also varied with different types of erroneous responses and allowed the repetition of errors during the learning process to be predicted. Thus, our results allow the prediction of error repetition and also can be used to make suggestions about the phenomenon of recurring errors and the causes of their occurrence.

The artificial environment of a psychological laboratory experiment offers an excellent method for testing whether a causal relationship exists, — but it is mostly useless for predicting the size and power of such effects in normal life. In comparison with effects out in the world, laboratory effects are often artificially large, because the laboratory situation is set up precisely to capture this effect, with extraneous factors screened out. Equally problematic, laboratory effects are often artificially small, given practical and ethical constraints that make laboratory situations watered-down echoes of what happens in life. Furthermore, in many cases the very notion of a true effect size (as if it were constant across different manipulations and dependent variables) is absurd. These problems are illustrated with examples from the author’s own research programs. It is also revealing that experimental effect sizes, though often quite precisely calculated and proudly integrated into meta-analyses, have attracted almost zero attention in terms of substantive theory about human mental processes and behavior. At best, effect sizes from laboratory experiments provide information that could help other researchers to design their experiments, — but that means effect sizes are shop talk, not information about reality. It is recommended that researchers shift toward a more realistic appreciation of how little can be learned about human mind and behavior from effect sizes in laboratory studies.

The article examines the fears of personal death and attitudes to global risks. It presents the results of the study conducted on the sample of Russian students (N = 521), and explores the relationship between fears of death, attitudes to global risks and proactive coping strategies. In accordance with the terror management theory (Solomon et al., 2001), it is shown that attitudes toward death make the greatest contribution to the orientation towards a return to traditional religious values and citizens’ responsibility to prevent a global catastrophe. The adaptive attitudes toward death (neutral acceptance of death, fear of the loss of self-fulfillment and fear of the consequences for family) reinforce the belief in the need for cooperation to anticipate and prevent global risks, as well as the willingness to participate in disaster prevention. The maladaptive and defensive attitudes toward death (escape acceptance of death, death avoidance, fear of the loss of social identity, fear of self-annihilation) reinforce apocalypticism and fatalistic ignoring of global risks. The attitudes to global risks associated with resilience and proactive coping are highlighted: optimism about the global future, orientation towards cooperation to predict and prevent global threats, belief in the need to return to traditional religious values, as well as willingness to participate in the prevention of global risks and to protect oneself and the loved ones from them. Supporting radical solutions to prevent catastrophes, apocalypticism and fatalistic disregard for the threat are destructive from the point of view of the individual resilience. The data obtained indicate that the reminder of death in the news about global risks can shift public opinion towards conservative attitudes, reduce the readiness to search for solutions to prevent global catastrophes.

The paper analyzes the relationships of intergroup tolerance with morality on the basis of the moral foundations theory by J. Haidt. Literature review showed that many researchers view tolerance as an internally inconsistent construct including its moral inconsistency. From the point of view of the moral foundations theory, inconsistency of tolerance may be due to the different relations with individualizing and binding moral foundations: tolerance is consistent with individualizing moral foundations (autonomy ethics) and inconsistent with binding moral foundations (community ethics). Such inconsistency has to manifest itself in the case of tolerance towards potentially dangerous groups. This hypothesis was tested in our study, which included 202 university students aged 18-46 (36% males). They answered the questions of “Moral foundations questionnaire” (MFQ by Graham) and “Multifactor inventory of tolerance” (MIT by Babaeva & Sabadosh). Using exploratory factor analysis, we discovered two types of groups: derogated (elder, sick, marginal people, and opposite sex) and dangerous groups (people of different religiosity, nationality, criminals, and strangers). To test the hypothesis we constructed the structural model, where the autonomy ethics was positively correlated with tolerance towards derogated and dangerous groups, while community ethics was negatively correlated with tolerance towards dangerous groups. Good fit of this model to our data lets us to conclude that autonomy ethics is consistent with tolerance towards any group while community ethics is inconsistent with tolerance towards dangerous groups. These correlations between tolerance and moral foundations discover the fundamental inconsistency of tolerance in the context of autonomy and community ethics.